Garnet is a group of silicate minerals used since bronze age as abrasive substances for several industrial and pre-industrial manufacturing processes.
Garnet varieties can bear different colors including red, orange, yellow, green, purple and black, yet the reddish colored ones are the most frequent ones. Their light refraction feature can vary from full transparent specimens used as gemstones for jewelry to the opaque ones used as abrasives in the industrial sector.

Garnet sand has since long time substituted silica sand as abrasive media. The main reason is free crystalline silica, element that a growing body of investigations confirm to be toxic and hazardous for the environment and human health. Garnet is a preferred alternative for sandblasting processes, thanks to the angular shape of the granules, its hardness and specific weight.
Added to high pressure water stream, Garnet is frequently used to cut through steel and other materials through the so called waterjet applications, for which a special hard sand is sorted and specifically optimized for cutting applications. Last of all, given its superior hardness and specific weight, Garnet is often preferred to traditional abrasives and inhert medias as silica sand and quarry for the realization of layered filters for water and liquids treatment offering an extended shelf life in application.

Generally speaking, Garnet abrasive is divided into two main categories: sandblasting grades and waterjet grades, yet recent developments on both technologies have brought along several contaminations and interconnections. During collection and further processing Garnet is selected starting from microscopic granules with tiny dimensions equal to one thousandth of millimeter (the micron). It is generally accepted that granules with a diameter over 30 mesh (US measure equal to 600 microns or 0,6 mm) are of exclusive use in sandblasting and those staying in the range between 30 mesh (600 microns) and 350 mesh (25 microns) are used in waterjet cutting. Traditionally Garnet micro-grades under 200 mesh (74 microns or 0,074 mm) are used for glass grinding and lapping. Recently nevertheless micro-sandblasting applications (especially for fine arts and restoration) on the one side and new waterjet applications as swordfish on the other lead to the possibility of application of all grades both in sandblasting and in waterjet cutting, depending only on the process and finishing needs.

Sandblasting is a mechanical process with which the shallower part of a material is eroded through abrasion due to a pressurized abrasive jet. The most frequent application is metals surface cleaning, yet other possible uses include engraving of images on marble, stones and tiles.
Garnet manufactured and sold under IGM flagship, thanks to the peculiar granular shape has proven to be one of if not the best abrasives in the market, substituting both traditional products (as silica sand, quarry powders, calcium bi-carbonate, aluminum oxide and silicon carbide) and other less efficient garnet abrasives, that in some case prove to be also hazardous for the environment and for human health. IGM Garnet sand is furthermore one of the hardest abrasives in the market, allowing an extremely aggressive sandblasting even on most resistant surfaces. Apart from this IGM has developed micro-grades for delicate surfaces and fine arts, certified and guaranteed. Many contractors expressly indicate IGM Garnet in their tenders, and not by case. IGM Garnet is guaranteed as for what concerns chlorides, sulphates and electrical conductivity, it is manufactured under TÜV, SSPC, ARBC, it’s the best and overcomes any challenge!

Sand filtration is a process of water and generally liquids purification consisting in the removal of suspended solids floating in the fluid by having the fluid pass through a multilayer filter containing abrasive sand beds, towered with a layer of gravel and possibly by layers of activated or anthracite carbon for disinfection and fluid transparency and draining. The media that is put inside the filter is traditionally silica sand, gravel or quarry, yet none of these can count on the specific weight that characterizes IGM Garnet sand, this property allows this product create more compact filters and therefore more effective and long lasting.
Water treatment by sand filters it is a classical and well consolidated technique, well developed everywhere in the world for its low maintenance and operational costs, for its reliability and for the possibility of removing over 99.9% of suspended solids, a percentage that with IGM Garnet is almost guaranteed.

Waterjet cutting is gaining more and more consensus over the years as a way to cut a wide variety of materials.

The ease of set up and the reduced cutting costs along with the possibility  of cutting virtually all kind of materials of variable thickness and hardness with a hundredth of millimeter precision made of it an essential machinery for most different applications. Waterjet cutting is used also in the food & beverage industry, of course without abrasive but with pure water jet.

Adding an abrasive media the application reaches the maximum efficiency enabling the operator to cut through thicker and harder at high speed. Garnet sand in this kind of processes  is not merely the most efficient abrasive media  but the only one with suitable features fitting at best the application’s specific needs, as shown by absolute monopoly within the industry.

IGM Garnet is certified and approved by universities and research centers. IGM has the unique micro-grades for micro-waterjet (micro cutting) and waterjet peeling developed from NEW product and not from recycling of wastes, up to 350 mesh, certified and guaranteed.

Within IGM many services the company offers its customers his expertise in order to develop the most suitable proposal for the handling and management of exhausted abrasives and production wastes, cooperating with the customers in order to create solutions tailored for any need and situation, so to grant always an efficient working process not neglecting the respect and care for the environment and human health.

Our company offers its assistance in order to develop fully safe waste stock systems helping the customers to handle them with due diligence and complying with ruling regulations, with an immediate advantage for themselves and for the whole planet.